It was 1988, and future Rock ‘N’ Bowl owner John Blancher wasn’t exactly down to his last dime, but it’s fair to say he didn’t exactly have a lot of change burning a hole in his pocket.
The real estate market was tanking, and Blancher was trying to make ends meet for his family, which was in “financial crisis,” by working in exotic commission sales.

“I sold crawfish, insurance, real estate, securities,” Blancher told the 20th Men’s Morning of Spirituality Feb. 28 at St. Anthony of Padua Church in New Orleans. “One particular week I sold a $6,000 real estate partnership, $6,000 in silver, 8,500 pounds of crawfish and a bottle of perfume – Estee Lauder – at D.H. Holmes. That was a lot of activity in one week but not a whole lot of money.”

Blancher’s good friend Chuck Cusimano had been to Medjugorje in 1986 to investigate the reported apparitions of the Blessed Mother in the small Croatian town, and Blancher’s wife had gone the following year.
“I believed in the apparitions, but I was very uncomfortable speaking about my faith,” Blancher said.

Open to a vision
When Blancher finally did go to Medjugorje in 1988, he was hoping to see “some type of spiritual phenomenon.” He didn’t.
“I saw no visions, I saw no supernatural incidents,” Blancher said.

On the mountain in Medjugorje, villagers erected a large concrete cross in 1933 in honor of the 1,900th anniversary of the passion and death of Jesus. The custom is for pilgrims to place petitions at the foot of the cross, and the petitions are burned every evening.
“I asked Our Lady to please help me find something to take care of my family,” Blancher said.

A week later, back in New Orleans, one of his friends asked him: “Hey, John, you’re looking for a business deal? You want to buy a bowling alley?”
“I had never bowled in my life,” Blancher said.

People thought he was crazy
Blancher thought his friend was crazy, but then he reflected about the petition he had made in Medjugorje.
“I had asked for something, and maybe this was it,” he said. “I decided to go take a look at it.”

What he saw at Mid-City Bowling Lanes, where the bowling alley run by the Knights of Columbus was tucked away on the second floor of rickety steps, was almost laughable.
“There were two little old ladies who opened it up every morning,” he said. “There were two different little old ladies who closed the place every night about 10 o’clock.”
Blancher had almost no money, so he prayed.

“I said, ‘Blessed Mother, if this is a bad idea, just stop me,’” Blancher said. “I offered $1,000 down and a $9,000 note payable over 10 years. And they said, ‘We’ll take it.’ Everybody told me I was nuts. My mom and dad said, ‘What are you doing? Are you crazy?’ And I couldn’t tell them I thought the Blessed Mother was telling me to do it. They would have really thought I was nuts.”

Anxiety of a $29 day
The day before Blancher took over, the bowling alley did $29 in gross business.
On All Saints’ Day in 1988, Blancher became the owner, and the first thing he did was hang a portrait of Our Lady of Medjugorje at the entrance above the staircase.

“I painted the place Blessed Mother blue,” he said. “I just started working all the time.”
He knew making a go of the crazy business venture would almost eliminate the time he spent with his wife and kids. He used to throw baseballs to his son every day. That following summer, he saw his son Johnny take one at-bat on his Little League team.

“The good news is my son ended up being a lot better hitter when I wasn’t around,” Blancher said.
Blancher had a vision that the wide-open spaces of the alley one day would make a great catering hall for parties and receptions. Blancher was looking for a small business loan to fulfill that vision, but he was turned down on Dec. 8. His family advised him to get out while he could.
That night, he went to St. Clement of Rome Parish’s adoration chapel.

‘This wasn’t my idea’
“I said, ‘Blessed Mother, this was not my idea. You gotta help me get out of this,’” Blancher said.
When things were looking their bleakest, a friend wrote a story for The Times-Picayune’s business section about a New Orleans character buying an old bowling alley. It ran on Jan. 17, 1989.

“The most games I had ever had on a weekend was 60 games,” Blancher said. “That weekend I had 600 games. I got a shot in the arm.”
As word spread on local TV, news media from across the world began beating down the doors to his Blessed Mother blue bowling alley. A “krewe” of local artists and musicians saw the buzz and decided to hold its party there, the first time a live band played at Rock ‘N’ Bowl.

“It grew and it grew,” Blancher said. “The greatest PR person you could ever have is the Blessed Mother. The Blessed Mother never stopped sending people to the bowling alley. This can’t be by accident.”

And then, six monks walk in
Along the way, everyone seemed drawn to the alley. Six Buddhist monks showed up one day in their saffron robes to bowl, using both hands to heave the ball down the lane.

“They tell me Buddhist monks want to experience everything at least once in their life,” Blancher said. “They had never bowled before. The guy said, ‘Look, they don’t wear shoes. They go barefoot.’ I said, ‘Hey, that’s OK.’ People all over the world climb the mountains of Nepal to ask the Buddhist monks the meaning of life, and I had six Buddhist monks climbing the steps of the Rock ‘N’ Bowl.”

A story on Rock ‘N’ Bowl appeared in National Geographic in 1995, “and all of a sudden, I’m in the international spotlight,” Blancher said. “All of a sudden, I’m a place that people from out of town want to come to. I said, ‘The Blessed Mother never stops.’”

Blancher eventually bought Ye Old College Inn in 2003. When the sale was completed, he didn’t have another portrait of the Blessed Mother at hand, so he instead placed a large picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the entrance.

When Ray Riecke, the previous co-owner, saw Blancher hang up the Sacred Heart picture, he told him: “I’ve been wanting to get out of this business for a number of years. I wanted to sell it. And my wife and I did a novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and on the ninth day is when you called.”

“God works in mysterious ways,” Blancher said. “The good Lord’s been so good to me.”
Also speaking at the morning were Jerry Christopher Jr., a guitarist with the band Bag of Donuts, and Reid Wick, a member of the Bucktown Allstars, who talked about their faith lives and their music.

Ah, Thursday night — the only truly social night of the week. It’s the night when babysitters are booked, friends convene, and drinks are imbibed. There are no family obligations to fulfill, no amateurish weekend crowds to elbow through — and the possibilities are endless. The night starts after work and ends whenever you want. In any city. All over the world.

This week, we present the perfect Thursday night in New Orleans, La.

Drew Brees lives, eats, and plays for New Orleans. When the Saints quarterback takes a break from the field, he’s enjoying the city’s streets and beats. Here’s how the Super Bowl champ does a night out in NOLA.

5 p.m.: Brees suggests starting the night at Jackson Square – in the heart of the French Quarter. The square is named after Battle of New Orleans hero Andrew Jackson, and a statue of (you guessed it!) Jackson is at the center. Brees likes to make his way to the foot of Saint Louis Cathedral. And there are other cool things to check out, too – like the plein air artist community. Nothing like history and art to kick off the night in this eclectic city.

6 p.m.: Head to Ye Old College Inn for some grub. Brees usually goes with his wife or a few of his Saints offensive linemen buddies. “It’s authentic New Orleans food on the healthier side,” says Brees. His favorite is the duck appetizer. “It’s not on the menu, but they always have it.” The redfish or black trout (with crab meat on top) are Brees’s go-to dishes, but if you’re splurging, he highly suggests the Chicken Fried Steak Po-Boy. “It’s the one place — and my favorite place — to get it. It’s the greatest thing in the world.”

7:30 p.m.: Because New Orleans is more than just food, drinks, and jazz, a walk down Royal Street is a must. “It’s all antique shops and art shops. It gives you the vibe of the French Quarter.” Brees says it’s great for window shopping, but you’ll also want to go back for some retail therapy on the weekend. “Definitely go back there during the daytime,” recommends Brees. “You’re able to appreciate the architecture.”

8 p.m.: After dining and strolling, it’s time to sing and dance off some calories at Preservation Hall. “Trombone Shorty is one of our local musicians who’s known around the country and the world. He’s one of our favorites,” says Brees. “If he’s playing, we want to go see him.” There are typically three performances — and it’s always a cool mix, since there’s no formal audition process to play at the venue. Instead, traditional Jazz musicians are invited to “rehearsal sessions” at the gallery to jam.

10:30 p.m.: Before heading home, make your last stop of the night the original Café Du Monde for some of its famous beignets. It’s been in business since 1862 and is now, conveniently, open 24 hours a day. “That place is legendary,” says Brees, who estimates that he could down a dozen of its powdered sugar sweets with his wife. “That’s a good late night snack.”

In this episode of America’s Best Bites, Johnny Blancher from Ye Olde College Inn prepares a Fried Bread Pudding Po-Boy

At the age of 12, Johnny Blancher became a line cook at his family’s restaurant/dance hall/bowling alley. He also rented shoes and repaired bowling machine equipment at the New Orleans entertainment landmark known as the Rock ‘n’ Bowl.

Later he played baseball for Louisiana State University before transferring to Loyola University to study political theory and graduate with a degree in social science.

Today? He’s back to his roots, cooking at the Ye Olde College Inn, another New Orleans icon that his family bought to preserve their neighborhood’s rich history.

But nowadays, Blancher may also merit a job title that he’d likely never claim himself. For if we define environmental journalists as tellers of important stories about the environment, here’s a guy who fits that role in an unusual manner.

I met Blancher during the Society of Environmental Journalists recent annual conference in New Orleans. I had signed up for a meal called If you can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em. Invasive species were on the menu. Much like the Great Lakes region, invaders from elsewhere are decimating huge chunks of Louisiana native flora and fauna.

Is this environmental journalism? Image: David Poulson
Is this environmental journalism? Image: David Poulson
It was sheer accident that organizers stumbled across Blancher to orchestrate the meal as they arranged a party at the Rock ‘n’ Bowl. But he certainly has the environmental ethic and creative enthusiasm to make it work. Kitchen scraps at his restaurant are composted for use in nearby urban gardens that grow garnishes, vegetables and even grapes for a dessert wine he hopes to produce.

The family also produces the free-range eggs, honey and grass-fed beef that it serves. Restaurant vehicles run on the cooking oil first used at the facility they serve.

Blancher and his kitchen staff threw themselves into the challenge of creating fine food from unpopular critters. Even the garnishes of invasive plants were taste-tested. Some were pretty awful, he said.

But the food he served us was great

Each course arrived with Blancher’s tale of how it was obtained, the challenges of preparing it and the environmental threats it represents. The Formasa termites in the peach cobbler’s streusel? They were delivered in two large buckets by a man from Louisiana termite control. The kitchen staff first froze them solid to keep them from falling apart during prep. That was the advice of experts at the city’s insectarium, a zoo for bugs.

Nutria on the riverbank. Image: Peter Milosevic via Wiki Commons
Nutria on the riverbank. Image via Wiki Commons
Nutria baked in a tamale pie. Image: David Poulson
Nutria in a tamale pie served with cebolita cream. Image: David Poulson

We ate tamale pie that contained nutria, a large rodent decimating Louisiana dikes and wetlands.

The giant tiger prawn Blancher served contained enough meat to equal a dozen of the native shrimp that they threatened – and was equally delicious.

Char-broiled tiger prawn with wild mushroom risotto and truffle essence. Image: David Poulson
Char-broiled tiger prawn with wild mushroom risotto and truffle essence. Image: David Poulson
Like many places, exotic wild boar uproots and destroys native vegetation in Louisana. The one we were served was raised by a man named Virgil, Blancher said. He traps and raises rabbits and the occasional boar for a living.

Wild boar in water. Image: Richard Bartz via Wiki Commons
Wild boar in water. Image: Richard Bartz via Wiki Commons
Wild boar cochon de lait with pepper jelly purslane. Image: David Poulson
Wild boar cochon de lait with pepper jelly purslane. Image: David Poulson
Between courses of the food that was excellent despite its exotic origins, Blancher told us his story – how his family and its businesses survived hurricane Katrina in a neighborhood devastated by floods and fires. The environmental disaster was also opportunity. They moved the Rock ‘n’ Bowl and the College Inn to new nearby venues. And they were able to buy and reclaim nearby lots for the restaurant gardens.

“Everybody has a story,” said Blancher whose favorite television show is The Story Trek which tells the stories of random people.

That’s true. And it’s the telling of such stories that enable journalists to connect important issues to the public.

Their venue may be the printed word, video clips, podcasts, stage plays, choreography – or recipes.

Does that make Blancher an environmental journalist? Perhaps. I’m not sure that the label matters.

Regardless, he’s staying close to his culinary roots. When I asked him if he thought that invasive species dinners might appeal to his regular customers, his eyes widened and he said, “You know, I think this could be a thing. This might be on the menu tomorrow.”

If it happens, I just hope Blancher can find a way for those servings to arrive with a healthy side order of the stories behind them.

Ye Olde College Inn’s Light & Healthy Fish is an Eat Fit NOLA-approved dish. Eat Fit NOLA uses the American Heart Association’s upper limits for sodium and saturated fat, and takes it two steps further with no white carbs, and less than one teaspoon of added sugar. Essentially, Eat Fit NOLA takes the guess-work out of dining out in New Orleans, and can fit into the diets of people with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, as well as those looking to lose weight, maintain a healthy weight, or, simply eat cleaner. It is a completely free service offered to all local restaurants.

Some of the bakeries included in our 58 Days of King Cakes reporting project have been in business for decades. (As if you didn’t know, we are reporting on a different king cake each day, on the toppings, texture, fillings and more.) Today’s king cake comes from a brand-new bakery that’s been open since Dec. 10. For some months before, under the direction of pastry chef Alex Heath, the bakery started supplying bread and desserts to the other parts of the enterprise.

It’s the new Ye Olde Bake Shoppe, another enterprise from the Blancher family behind Ye Olde College Inn and Rock ‘n’ Bowl. In 2012, the Blanchers opened Straight Stick Ranch Burger Co.

The Bake Shoppe’s entrance is on the Earhart side of the parking lot, in a building that parallels the busy thoroughfare. And to give it props where due, the entire compound is as charming as any could be with a great big parking lot in the center.

Layers of cinnamon-covered dough are rolled together and twisted, not braided. The twists create attractive striations in the icing, which has a lemony hint of flavor and vivid shades of crispy sugar on top. The not-too-sweet dough is dense but not heavy, and the icing does not overpower. The icing is just enough, and it allows one to see that the king cake itself is well-browned. It also comes in nice packaging, always a bonus.

Lagniappe: Ye Olde Bake Shoppe had some other items draped in purple-green-and-gold icing, including muffins. They serve breakfast and lunch, including some items from the College Inn’s farm next door, and a bagel and lox sandwich.

Ye Olde College Inn: A Family Business

Ye Olde College Inn is a family business in the truest sense of the term. Not only is it run by a family, but many of the family members are frequently present… even the children and grandchildren. Of course, Ye Olde College Inn is also a favorite of families all across the city.

Family is a theme that shines through in our interview with John and Johnny Blancher.

Recycling cooking oil into biofuel, donating used equipment and growing some of their own food are a few of the ways three New Orleans restaurant and hospitality businesses are shrinking their carbon footprints.

Haley Bitterman, corporate executive chef and director of operations for the Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group; Ann Tuennerman, founder of the Tales of the Cocktail festival; and Johnny Blancher, vice president and executive chef Ye Olde College Inn, made up the panel for a discussion on restaurant sustainability efforts at the Louisiana Restaurant Association’s August 2012 trade show in New Orleans.

Here’s how they put five eco-friendly solutions to work:

Plant a garden. The Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group (RBRG), which has experimented with rooftop gardens, is working on a plan to grow herbs in the sculpture garden next to the New Orleans Museum of Art in City Park. The produce will flavor dishes at the company’s Café Nola, located inside the museum, and Ralph’s on the Park, an upscale eatery nearby.

The proprietors of Ye Old College Inn purchased several lots across the street from the restaurant and turned them into The College Farm, where they grow a variety of vegetables, fruits and herbs, including sugarcane.

Recycle waste. Chickens at The College Farm don’t just produce fresh eggs for the menu. They feed on kitchen waste and convert it into compost material for the garden. RBRG provides compost for the urban gardens of the nonprofit New Orleans Green Roots, while Tales of the Cocktail (TOTC) donated nearly 16,000 pounds of compost to the Hollygrove Community Garden this year.

TOTC also recycled the cardboard packaging the 5,000 bottles of liquor and 48,000 swag items from the event. Both RBRG and Ye Olde College Inn recycle cooking oil into biofuel.

Conserve resources. RBRG restaurants are washing their dishes green. They installed water-saving spray nozzles that use only a third of the water that conventional models do.

TOTC organizers switched from printing their media kit to providing it on a USB drive before they finally posted it online. The previously printed, 650-page recipe book became a searchable e-book.

Reuse old materials. RBRG turns office paper into waiters’ pads and prints on both sides of memos. They also donate old equipment to local charities.

“For instance, when we closed down Bacco, we reached out to different charities to see who could use the chairs,” Bitterman says. “If we have plate ware that is left over, we try and donate it locally instead of throwing it away.”

Use eco-friendly supplies and equipment. Energy-efficient lighting and environmentally friendly chemicals are two more tools RBRG employs to make its operations more sustainable. But Bitterman admits it’s challenging to raise the green chemicals usage above the current 80 percent.

“We’re having a very hard time finding something eco-friendly that really deals with grease on the floors and in the kitchens,” she says. She also noted that while her company has been able to switch to biodegradable to-go containers, thanks to its volume buying power, for many smaller operations the move is not as affordable.

Tuennerman offered another reason many restaurants haven’t yet made the switch: “I think some of these places order in such bulk that, unfortunately, they have a lot of Styrofoam sitting in the back.”

“One of my favorites is Ye Old College Inn,” says Brees of this upscale American pub, a neighborhood staple since the end of Prohibition. “It has a ‘Cheers’ feel to it,” he says. “I’ve seen Harry Connick Sr. there a number of times.” Like many other Crescent City classics, Hurricane Katrina pummeled this city landmark on August 29, 2005. “It was completely destroyed,” says Brees, “but the owners tore it down, turned that space into a parking lot, and rebuilt it next door with a small bowling alley, Rock ‘n’ Bowl, behind it.” So what’s his perfect night on South Carrollton Avenue? “Rock ‘n’ Bowl has a little bar with a stage and live music every night,” says Brees. “So, I go bowl, listen to the music, have some drinks, and then go eat at Ye Old College Inn.”

Chefs Johnny Blancher and Bradley McGehee have been introducing farm-to-table principles to Ye Olde College Inn for a while now, even going so far as to plant a garden in a lot adjacent to the old-school New Orleans neighborhood restaurant. A couple of weeks ago, Blancher unveiled a new concept that carries the local food aesthetic across the parking lot to Rock ‘n’ Bowl, the music club and bowling alley operated by his father John Blancher, who is also an owner of Ye Olde College Inn.
The new venture is called Straight Stick Ranch Burger Co. Gambit’s Ian McNulty wrote about the “walk-up burger stand” last week on bestofneworleans.com. “We’re doing burgers, beer and beignets,” Johnny Blancher told McNulty, who described Straight Stick’s standard burger as “a 6-ounce patty that is chargrilled and served on a bun from the nearby Maple Street Patisserie.”
In an email over the weekend, John Blancher wrote, “The concept is to serve 100% Louisiana grass-fed beef. My wife’s family raises cattle and we’re buying their cows, having them slaughtered, and then we butcher and grind our own meat. It’s my son’s concept, and Brad McGehee is working with him to put it together.”

The College Inn Farm is a project that currently provides a variety of fresh produce. The focus of the farm changes seasonally. Herbs are a year round item of the farm and provide an ultra fresh compliment to our menu. The seasonality of the vegetables and fruits help enhance the creativity of our specials. Additionally, fresh farm eggs provide a great twist at times. Currently, nine Buff Orpington and four Rhode Island Reds reside at the farm providing us with a steady supply of rich, deep orange yolks. The flock, affectionately referred to as the Cock-a-doodle Convent, give some life to the grounds as they enjoy pecking about the farm searching for the goodies they enjoy. This traditional breakfast item is presented in unique ways for dinner, sometimes changing the common held perception of the egg.

Best of Show: Ye Olde College Inn’s Bread Pudding Po-Boy
I made a beeline when we arrived to taste the bread pudding po-boy. It was a whole loaf of bread made into bread pudding, and somehow fried. It was pretty darned yummy.

Ye Olde College Inn also won last year’s Best of Show award, for their Fried Green Tomatoes and Shrimp Remoulade Po-boy.
The festival on Oak Street turnout was no doubt enhanced by the most spectacular weather imaginable. When I arrived at 11:45 a.m., there were already hundreds of people on the street in advance of the noon starting time, as some of the artists were still setting up, the beer trucks were still finding cups, and food booths were gearing up.
It looked like the crowds were just as plentiful as they were for the first festival, when 10,000 people packed Oak Street like sardines.This year, traffic flow was vastly improved, although still crowded in spots. My sometimes-cranky husband said the festival should ban bicycles, strollers and dogs, but for a free street festival, I can’t see it. In fact, there was a place for canine watering this year, so dogs were specifically welcome.

Several restaurants along the expanded five-block festival route were serving food other than po-boys, including the sushi restaurant Ninja and the new barbecue joint, Squeal, which even had a guy with a big sign standing out in the traffic touting their $8 ribs.
Another welcome innovation was the addition of two big dining tents, set off on side streets. The one history panel I managed to see, on the history of muffulettas, was excellent, but sparsely attended.

When the John Blancher family bought Ye Olde College Inn five years ago, little did they know that the cast of characters they were inheriting at the Carrollton Avenue restaurant and bar would rival Norm’s gang from TV’s “Cheers.”

Cartwright Eustis IV is such a regular at Ye Olde College Inn that the menu features a steak named after him, the chefs wear coats with his face embroidered on them, and his picture is in numerous pictures and drawings on the wall.

Chief among those is a round-faced, rosy-cheeked, pudgy, always-smiling, fun-loving cutup named Cartwright Eustis IV — a creature of habit who probably has logged more hours at College Inn than anyone else, with the exception of former owner Emile Ruffin, whose family began the business in 1933.

A D.H. Holmes shopping bag is framed in a shadow box. A large painting pays tribute to Mr. Bingle. A quote from Ernie K. Doe — “I’m cocky but I’m good” — is scrawled across a wall plaque.
And general manager John Blancher II wears seersucker pants with his white chef’s coat as he greets guests on warm summer days in the dining room.
Fashion trends may come and go, but during sultry New Orleans summers, lightweight seersucker is always in style.
The striped cotton is so closely associated with the South in general, and the Crescent City in particular, that the Ogden Museum of Southern Art salutes the traditional summer suit during its annual Sippin’ in Seersucker fundraiser, held tonight at the Shops at Canal Place.